Category: Electrified transportation

Like politics, all environmentalism is local. It’s the actions you take as you go about your day that determine the balance in your own personal carbon account with Mother Earth. Fortunately, it is actually very easy, thanks to actions taken…

Imagine the GO train running on electricity. That is one of the recommendations of a transportation expert quoted in a very provocative article in today’s Toronto Star. Electrified GO Trains would represent a major improvement in travel through the GTA…

When I took driver’s ed, the instructor hammered away on two things: maintain a liberal following distance, and aim high in steering­®. Keeping a good following distance is just common sense. Aiming high in steering—i.e., keeping your eyes a few…

Toronto’s subway trains carry thousands of passengers every hour through underground tunnels. This would be extremely difficult to accomplish if the traction power hurling the trains across the east-west line and up and down the north-south lines under the city…

Ontario’s coal-fired power phaseout, scheduled to be complete by 2014, will leave eight perfectly good 455-megawatt coal-fired generating units idle. These are hugely valuable assets, built and paid for by the former Ontario Hydro (which was since split into a…

Table A1: Total Ontario generation and related CO2, by fuel, in the hour preceding 23:06 on 2018-02-21

FUEL

MWh

CO2, tons

Nuclear

10,265

0

Hydro

4,844

0

Gas

552

223

Wind

507

0

Biofuel

27

27

Oil & Gas

0

0

Solar

0

0

TOTAL

16,195

250

CO2 intensity per kWh (CIPK) in the last hour: 15.49 grams.

Table A2: Total Ontario generation and related CO2, by fuel, on 2018-02-21

FUEL

MWh

CO2, tons

Nuclear

235,222

0

Hydro

101,516

0

Gas

24,828

9,797

Wind

23,030

0

Biofuel

537

537

Oil & Gas

0

0

Solar

4,061

0

TOTAL

385,542

10,334

Average CO2 intensity per kWh (CIPK) over period: 25.97 grams

This content is updated at 50 minutes past the hour. Refresh at that time to see latest available data. Sources: www.ieso.ca and EmissionTrak™

Table A3 Should we replace nuclear plants with natural gas-fired ones? This table compares actual Ontario grid CO2 emissions from the last hour with those from a grid in which gas has replaced nuclear.

Actual Ontario grid

Gas replaces nuclear

250

5,896

15.49

365.31

Tons CO2CIPK, grams
If gas had replaced nuclear last hour, Ontario power plants would have dumped enough CO2 to fill Rogers Centre 2.0 times. As it was, 250 tons were dumped, which would fill Rogers Centre 0.1 times.